�MINUTES OF THE FACULTY HANDBOOK REVISION COMMITTEE

TUESDAY, JULY 25, 2006

MASON HALL, room D1, 3:00 � 4:30 p.m.

Present:� Lorraine Brown, Professor of English, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences and President of the AAUP Chapter of George Mason University; Rick Coffinberger, Associate Professor of Business and Legal Studies, School of Management, Chair; Marilyn Mobley, Associate Provost for Education Programs; David Rossell, Associate Provost for Personnel and Budget, ex-officio; Suzanne Slayden, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Science.

Absent:� Kevin Avruch, Professor of Conflict Resolution and Anthropology, Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution; Martin Ford, Senior Associate Dean, College of Education and Human Development; Dave Harr, Senior Associate Dean, School of Management.

�Revisions to Minutes of July 11, 2006:

LAU Professional Development Leaves, 3^rd revision:� Faculty eligible for LAU Professional Development Leaves must be full-time tenured faculty.� List of other leaves at end to be deleted.�

Family and Medical Leave Act:� Impact on Tenure-Track Faculty: The tenure clock has stopped for both male and female faculty who have taken leave under the FMLA in order to care for children and elderly parents. Normally the tenure-clock is stopped for one year.� Similar instances occur when faculty called to active duty military service.� The policy is posted on the Provost Office website under Promotion, Tenure and Tenure-Track Procedures/Schedules/Templates at http://www3.gmu.edu/departments/provost/documents/TenClock.doc; reproduced below:

THE TENURE CLOCK EXCEPTIONS TO STANDARD PROCEDURES

Under exceptional circumstances, a faculty member may petition to temporarily stop his/her tenure clock.� Petitioning is a formal process that must be initiated in advance of the requested stoppage.� Approval for the petition is required at several levels:� the Promotion and Tenure Committee and administrator of the faculty member�s local academic unit, followed by the Dean and Provost.� If a faculty member goes on leave without pay, the tenure clock does not automatically stop.� A formal petition must be filed for such stoppage.� No faculty member may change the tenure decision deadline by more than two years.

Petitions may be submitted for several reasons, one of the most compelling being family necessity.� In this case the faculty member must be required to provide substantial care for a dependent, care that must be rendered for a significant portion of the day during the regular workweek.�� These provisions involve unpaid leave or reduced salary leave (where some teaching continues with a reduced workload) and are independent of any benefits under the Family Medical Leave Act, though some overlap may occur.� Petitions on the basis of family necessity must establish the faculty member as a primary caregiver.� The Provost, upon recommendation of the unit administrator and Dean, will determine if these conditions have been met.� Petitions must be submitted as expeditiously as circumstances allow.

Normally, a petition for stoppage, if approved, will stop the tenure clock for a year.� A second petition may be submitted, provided that two years have elapsed since the first leave.� A faculty member is not eligible for additional teaching assignments during the stoppage period.

Revisions to July 18, 2006 Minutes:

Draft Revision Texts �Section 2.1.2 Probationary Appointment:� to substitute �Tenure-Track� for �Probationary� appointment as latter term has a negative connotation.� Although it is unusual, in some schools promotions to associate professor/professor may occur before tenure received. Revised text:

2.1.2 Tenure-Track Appointment

An appointment for a fixed term in which service is applied to consideration for tenure. These appointments are issued for terms of up to three years. The University can, but is not required to, renew such appointments of additional terms up to a total of seven years of service. A faculty member in the final term of a tenure-track appointment cannot subsequently be given another tenure-track appointment but can subsequently be considered for another type of fixed term appointment. Faculty on tenure-track appointments may hold the rank of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor.

Draft Revision Texts �Section 2.1.3 Other Types of Full-Time Fixed-Term Appointment:

Full-time instructional and research faculty on fixed-term, non-tenure track appointments are known as Term Faculty.� Service in such positions cannot be applied to consideration for tenure, although a faculty member holding this kind of appointment can subsequently be considered for a probationary or tenured appointment.

Term faculty whose assignments focus primarily on teaching are appointed as instructional faculty.� Term faculty whose assignments focus primarily on research are appointed as research faculty.� Some specific administrative or service functions may also be attached to the teaching or research focus.�

Term faculty may be offered single-year or multi-year contracts, with the maximum contract length being three years for initial appointments and reappointments at the same rank.� Such contracts automatically expire at the end of the contract period, and although they may be renewed, there is no guarantee or right to reappointment from one contract to the next, whether single-year or multi-year.

Term faculty appointments include appropriate academic rank as judged by the appointing local academic unit and subject to the approval of the appropriate Dean and Provost.� Multi-year term faculty must hold a terminal degree.� Term faculty with a terminal degree are eligible for promotion in rank after six years of service.� Multi-year contracts offered after promotion in rank may be for three or five years.�

Teaching-oriented term faculty may hold one of the following titles:� Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor.� Research-oriented term faculty may hold one of the following titles:� Research Instructor, Research Assistant Professor, Research Associate Professor, or Research Professor.

Term faculty on single-year appointments whose permanent employment is with another organization should be modified by the title �Visiting.�

• In some schools, a Master of Arts is a terminal degree. To add statement that �Any exceptions must be approved by the Provost, etc.�?
• To add phrase such as �terminal degree as relevant to their field� or �as appropriate to their discipline�? ��
• Instructors may be hired with masters� degrees only.� Year-to-year contracts used for non-terminal degree holders.
• In most cases terminal degree would hold true for promotion in rank.�
• To ask Provost Stearns for his views on this issue.

Discussion:� Inclusion of Research Faculty into Faculty Handbook:� Who is covered by the Faculty Handbook?� Should research faculty be included as a subset of term faculty or are they separate?� Historically research faculty on fixed term (appointments).�

• There are research faculty in COS who have been given tenure � if funding vanishes, they still have to be paid.� We have an institutional responsibility to cover; to have significant teaching load; to obtain tuition revenue from that.� Research Personnel Policies and Procedures written for those research faculty here for duration of grant.

• In COS question of influx of faculty who want to teach courses for which demand is limited.

• Suggestion made to add a paragraph in which a combination of research/instructional faculty duties are done � to look at doctoral peer groups (within and beyond VA) to see how they have handled this. We are facing problems similar to other institutions which have grown quickly.� How do they deal with this as more and more research faculty hired?�� Do they have research faculty who are tenured, and if so, what happens when their grant funding dries up?� Is there a limit to the numbers of research tenured faculty?

• Do we need to create a third, hybrid category?� No, because faculty must be either instructional or research in order to fulfill state requirements.�
• �Research faculty (who teach) should contact Center for Teaching Excellence.

• As long as we distinguish most research faculty as a subset of term faculty in finite grant activity, need a paragraph where there will be cases who don�t follow that mode; brought in as tenured faculty; could be asked to teach; not likely to happen often.�
• �Externally funded� was totally omitted from our text, also in RFP&P?
• Blended notion of how much teaching can they do as research faculty?

Next meeting August 22, 2006.� What to examine next, suggestions include:

• �Exclusion from Classroom,� �Dismissal for Cause,� etc.� Need for legal input also.� If a faculty member becomes unproductive and is hurting students, it can take 2 � years to (dismiss) them.� Exclusion from classroom as temporary measure needs to be re-examined.
• Questions regarding employee relations very important.
• Several faculty suggested that a revision period be incorporated into the Faculty Handbook. General consensus revision period of five to seven years; some suggested as long as fifty years.� Need to update because we have grown so fast.� Ten years too long, process could be short and straightforward; longer intervals require greater amount of work.

• �Faculty and Administrative perspectives important:� what does administration see as problems?�
• To specify in new edition how revision committee is comprised:� four representatives elected by the Faculty Senate; three appointed by Provost, David Rossell, Associate Provost for Personnel and Budget ex-officio; chair named by Faculty Senate.� Consensus that seven, not five representatives needed.
• Impact of faculty component on student issues such as adjunct faculty who leave before student has opportunity to question grades, etc.
• Need to have procedures for cases in which someone makes a mistake � to put on sanctioned leave without pay vs. �all or nothing� dismissal for cause; need for middle ground.� Need provision for humanitarian issues � e.g. when someone goes on leave with pay and having psychological problems.� Noted also that agreement to go through a treatment process may be used against you as it becomes part of your record; medical issues, clarification of ADA.� So many devices units can use for potential growth.
• Research Misconduct Committee � do not have options of various sanctions outside FH.� Need for reprimand.��� To provide document �Research Misconduct� � exclusion from classroom not applicable.
• Production of Faculty Handbook:� Provost�s Office has ongoing responsibility to make sure printed and on-line versions up to date; available for new faculty orientation.� BOV as ultimate approving authority.� Also need to have as pdf file on website to reproduce in its entirety.

Respectfully submitted,

Meg Caniano

Clerk, Faculty Senate